Eads & Heald Wealth Management Reduces Holdings in Verizon Communications Inc. (NYSE:VZ)

Eads & Heald Wealth Management reduced its stake in Verizon Communications Inc. (NYSE:VZ) by 4.5% during the fourth quarter, Holdings Channel.com reports. The firm owned 14,238 shares of the cell phone carrier’s stock after selling 667 shares during the period. Eads & Heald Wealth Management’s holdings in Verizon Communications were worth $569,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Several other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also recently bought and sold shares of VZ. ProShare Advisors LLC raised its stake in Verizon Communications by 9.1% in the second quarter. ProShare Advisors LLC now owns 679,435 shares of the cell phone carrier’s stock worth $28,020,000 after buying an additional 56,534 shares in the last quarter. EverSource Wealth Advisors LLC raised its position in shares of Verizon Communications by 18.6% in the 2nd quarter. EverSource Wealth Advisors LLC now owns 16,077 shares of the cell phone carrier’s stock worth $651,000 after acquiring an additional 2,517 shares in the last quarter. Public Sector Pension Investment Board lifted its stake in shares of Verizon Communications by 74.5% in the 2nd quarter. Public Sector Pension Investment Board now owns 162,405 shares of the cell phone carrier’s stock valued at $6,698,000 after purchasing an additional 69,328 shares during the period. Evergreen Capital Management LLC boosted its position in shares of Verizon Communications by 9.0% during the second quarter. Evergreen Capital Management LLC now owns 23,122 shares of the cell phone carrier’s stock valued at $954,000 after purchasing an additional 1,918 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Resources Management Corp CT ADV grew its stake in Verizon Communications by 2.8% in the second quarter. Resources Management Corp CT ADV now owns 80,287 shares of the cell phone carrier’s stock worth $3,311,000 after purchasing an additional 2,149 shares during the period. Institutional investors own 62.06% of the company’s stock.

Verizon Communications Stock Performance

VZ opened at $39.04 on Wednesday. The firm has a market cap of $164.34 billion, a P/E ratio of 16.83, a PEG ratio of 3.25 and a beta of 0.46. Verizon Communications Inc. has a 1-year low of $37.58 and a 1-year high of $45.36. The company has a 50 day simple moving average of $41.00 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $41.68. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.32, a current ratio of 0.66 and a quick ratio of 0.62.

Verizon Communications (NYSE:VZ) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, October 22nd. The cell phone carrier reported $1.19 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.18 by $0.01. Verizon Communications had a return on equity of 20.05% and a net margin of 7.30%. The business had revenue of $33.30 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $33.42 billion. During the same quarter in the prior year, the business posted $1.22 EPS. Verizon Communications’s revenue for the quarter was up .9% compared to the same quarter last year. Equities analysts forecast that Verizon Communications Inc. will post 4.59 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Verizon Communications Cuts Dividend

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, February 3rd. Investors of record on Friday, January 10th will be paid a dividend of $0.6775 per share. This represents a $2.71 annualized dividend and a yield of 6.94%. The ex-dividend date is Friday, January 10th. Verizon Communications’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 116.81%.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

VZ has been the topic of a number of research reports. Bank of America boosted their target price on shares of Verizon Communications from $41.00 to $45.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a report on Thursday, September 26th. Tigress Financial boosted their price objective on shares of Verizon Communications from $52.00 to $55.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research note on Tuesday, October 1st. Raymond James raised their target price on shares of Verizon Communications from $44.00 to $48.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research note on Tuesday, September 24th. UBS Group boosted their price target on Verizon Communications from $44.00 to $45.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research report on Friday, December 20th. Finally, Citigroup raised their price objective on Verizon Communications from $47.00 to $49.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research report on Wednesday, September 25th. Ten equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, seven have given a buy rating and one has given a strong buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat.com, the stock presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $46.54.

About Verizon Communications

Verizon Communications Inc, through its subsidiaries, engages in the provision of communications, technology, information, and entertainment products and services to consumers, businesses, and governmental entities worldwide. It operates in two segments, Verizon Consumer Group (Consumer) and Verizon Business Group (Business).